COVID-19 in Remote Africa: Lessons Learned in Fighting Ebola and the Role of Telemedicine

At a media briefing on March 18, WHO’s Direct General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus pointed toward solidarity within the community and healthcare system and emphasized that the same spirit of solidarity is crucial to contain and minimize the spread of COVID-19. Thirty-three countries in Africa reported more than 600 cases of COVID-19, as of March 19. 

There were specific decisions that helped turn the tide during the most recent Ebola outbreak in Africa. Now, the international medical community is espousing the importance of applying some of those same measures with COVID-19. And many of them are directly linked to telemedicine.  

Hospitals, healthcare systems and physicians make decisions based on data. Having access to reliable data in remote parts of Africa is crucial. Identifying emerging hot spots and outbreaks quickly is a primary benefit and intent of telemedicine. This is especially true for areas where a hospital is a full day’s journey away or even unreachable. 

Gathering diagnostic information in tight coordination within the medical community will, in fact, speed response and potentially sound the first alarm bells.

A key factor the WHO discovered in mitigating and containing the spread of Ebola was getting test results quickly. The number of laboratories equipped to test for COVID-19 remains a fluid and dynamic situation (so far there are 39 testing facilities in Africa). The quicker COVID-19 patients can be identified as positive or negative, the quicker measures can be put into place, particularly quarantines. 

While telemedicine kits don’t have the capacity to test for COVID-19, the clinicians that use them play an essential role in identifying potential cases and act as a force multiplier in getting samples to a lab. 

Vaccines are another very fluid and rapidly changing situation with COVID-19. There are some that are already in a trial phase. Medicines to treat the virus are being tested as well. 

Within one week of the 2018 Ebola outbreak in the DRC an experimental vaccine was issued saving lives and slowing the spread. Being able to monitor patients who receive vaccines or medicines in remote areas will, once again, fall on the shoulders of teams dispatched to those regions to provide care and guidance. 

And going back to the previous point about data collection; being able to monitor patients and send/receive diagnostic information will allow the healthcare community to archive data points to further understand the effectiveness of drugs.

Telehealth allows the healthcare systems to track, map, monitor and quarantine communities to prevent the spread of infection. As well, telemedicine is a gateway to elevated care. In dealing with a spreading pandemic, the data gathered by telehealth providers serves as a bullhorn to the healthcare systems.